Autonomous weapons create an unresolved accountability gap for civilian deaths

Evidence

Borenstein (2008) raises legal and ethical concerns about robotic systems. If they become more reliable than foot soldiers in reading and responding to combat situations, human oversight could be phased out. If a robotic system mistakes civilians for combatants, who would be held accountable for the actions of the robotic system? Christof Heyns, a UN expert on ex-trajudicial executions, declared that production and use of armed robots should be banned, saying, “War without reflection is mechanical slaughter” The advent of the Internet ushered in a ubiquitous vehicle for disengaging moral self-sanctions from transgressive conduct. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 473

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the chapter’s core thesis that moral disengagement works by displacing and diffusing responsibility — robots are the ultimate responsibility diffusion.